I have been watching this Ground Zero Mosque issue unfold with a bit of detached interest.  To be honest, I am torn on this.  The land owners should be able to utilize their land in any manner they see fit – that is about as basic an American “right” as there is.  Then there is the whole “freedom of religion” angle.  If you restrict where ANY church builds you are setting a horrible precedent that can not be denied.  As the Jewish advocacy group “J Street” said, a church or synagogue built in this place (Ground Zero) would not get a second thought – it would be approved right away…and they are right.

However, neither radical Christians nor radical Jews flew airplanes into the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.  Radical Muslims did and the imam behind Park 51 Project (as the Ground Zero Mosque complex is really called) has been rather shy about denouncing those radicals who attacked the US on 9/11.  The most telling comment was when he told the Sydney Daily Herald…

“But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets."

The problem with his analogy is that World War II was a mutually declared war against a specific country.    A better analogy would be the bombings of abortion clinics in the name of “preserving life” – a very oxymoronic, illogical defense of the indefensible.  That is exactly what Imam Abdul Rauf is doing.  Just as there is no excusing those who bomb abortion clinics or murder abortion providers in the name of “preserving life”, there is no excusing waging war in the name of a “peaceful religion”.

Many Americans see the building of a Mosque this close to ground zero as a slap in the face.  I can understand why.  I see it as being in horribly poor taste at a minimum and completely insensitive to the loss of life and the lives that were violently shattered on the sunny September morning 9 years ago.  If Imam Abdul Rauf were truly interested in gaining a mutual understanding between Islam and the West, he would not have pushed this to the point it has reached today.  The insistence on building in THIS location is generating more feelings of ill will that will make reconciliation between Islam and the West all the more impossible to achieve.